Floating Market (Wednesday Photo)

Michael Babcock, August 11th, 2010

Boat Vendor, Damneon Saduak Floating Market

Frying Bananas on a boat at Damneon Saduak Floating Market

Everyone should visit Damneon Saduak Floating Market south of Bangkok at least once. I recommend doing what Kasma does on her trips: hire a car, get up at the crack of dawn and arrive at the market around 7:00 a.m. in the morning. Then rent a boat and enjoy being paddled around on the klong (canals). At that time in the morning it’s a true local market: the tourists and tourist buses haven’t yet arrived and you can enjoy the market in relative peace and quiet.

I have te believe that images such as this are among the most widely known images of Thailand: a vendor on a boat with a straw hat. I love this picture of Kasma’s, taken on an old 35-mm Olympus camera in 1999. The first time I went to the market I was amazed to see vendors cooking everything right on the boat.

Floating markets are largely a remnant from the past, when much of the country lived along the canals (klong). Recently many other floating markets have opened, many of them much more strictly local than Damneon Saduak, perhaps the best known of the Thai floating markets.